LUCKNOW, INDIA, January 1, 2001: Ivory poachers killed an elephant in an Indian wildlife reserve but were driven off by furious villagers, who consider the elephants sacred, and forest guards, before they could remove the elephant's tusks, officials said Monday. The carcass of the poisoned elephant was found Sunday in Corbett National Park, home to nearly 600 elephants -- 100 of them with tusks, said Puran Chandra Joshi, field director of the park. The elephant was the second killed by poachers in a week in the park in the Himalayan foothills. On Friday, the mutilated body of an elephant with its tusks removed was discovered in the park. As ivory prices soar in the international market, poachers are preying on lone and aging elephants in the reserve's dense forests, Joshi said. Since the use of guns attracts attention, poachers have turned to poison to kill the animals.

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